San Zhuan Yi Xiang, or three rounds and one sound, refers to the four items that almost every Chinese household aspired to possess for decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The quartet includes a wristwatch, a bicycle, a sewing machine and a radio.
Seventy years on, these gadgets are no longer the symbols of a wealthy family, but rather cultural icons reflecting the tectonic transformation that the Chinese society has witnessed.
Bicycle
Riding to innovation
For a fairly long time since 1949, cars were a luxury only a few could afford in China while bicycles enjoyed the status of being the most preferred mode of transportation.
Old photos of streets jam-packed with bicycles and people paddling to their destination are easy to come by.
By the late 1980s, Beijing was home to ten million residents and eight million bicycles, according to Beijing Daily.
In the 1990s, Chinese families began to trade their two wheelers with vehicles as their income rose. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were 25 cars for every 10,000 urban households in 1998; a decade later the number stood at 883.
Bicycles slowly started to lose ground, only to rule the streets again with the emergence of ride-sharing concepts in recent years. The country reclaimed its title as the "kingdom of bicycles" as shared bicycle schemes took off nationwide, with two million units hitting streets in 2016, according to the China Bicycle Association.
The bicycle industry gained momentum as companies raced towards innovation, in their business models and creative products alike. From keyless bike locks to solid tires, China saw a new wave of bicycle-related patents. The tech-embedded shared bikes also contributed to better city planning by analyzing movement data of cyclists, and today, China is riding towards a future of innovation in the field.
Wristwatch
Ticking towards the future
"No girl would want to marry a man who does not have a Shanghai watch," is a saying that prevailed in Shanghai in the early 1980s.
At a time when China still had a planned economy, owning a wristwatch was regarded as a symbol of the affluent class, mainly due to low personal incomes and limited supply of commodities.
In the late 1970s, a "Shanghai" watch cost around 120 yuan, or 201 U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate at the time. When the average monthly income for urban residents was around 30 yuan, a watch was so highly priced that only a handful could flaunt it around their wrist. Those who saved the money could purchase one using a ration coupon under the country's then planned economy.
But soon, Chinese watch manufactures ramped up production to meet a growing demand and began competing in a fast developing market. Of the first ten years of the Chinese Spring Festival gala, Compas watch and Tianjin Seagull wristwatch dominated the ads featured on the countdown clock, a hot spot much like the Super Bowl ads in the U.S., for nine years.
In 2017, China's per capita disposable income stood at 25,974 yuan (4,102.4 U.S. dollars), 75.6 times than that in 1978. Chinese consumers are now demanding watches with practical functions and brand value, such as high-end timepieces, sports watches with health monitoring functions and children-friendly devices.
A vintage Shanghai watch now is not a must to tie the knot but a touch of nostalgia on the wrist.
Sewing machine
From family tailoring to mass production
The rhythms of a swinging pedal and a clicking pinhead as a loving mother or grandmother hunches over a sewing machine to mend worn-out pockets or add stitches to patchy clothes may have been part of the childhood memories of generations growing up in China between the 1950s and 1980s.
Under a ration system introduced in the 1950s due to a nationwide shortage of food and commodities, including fabric, a sewing machine was among the much-needed household items to help turn rationed cloth into ready-to-wears and fix fallen hems or frayed holes.
According to Beijing Daily, sewing machines became quite popular in Beijing, even in the countryside, in the mid-1980s. In 1983, there were 55 sewing machines for every 100 households in Beijing's rural outskirts.
Cloth coupons were phased out in December 1983 as fashion designs became more available on the racks and shelves of clothing stores, owing to the reform and opening-up policy that saw the country's planned economy replaced gradually by a market-driven one and a boom in material supplies. Sewing machines, which mainly served households, found their way to garment factories, helping turn China into a big textile manufacturer and exporter.
China also became a global manufacturer of sewing machines, with the country's annual output of the device accounting for around 80 percent of the world production in the late years of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, according to the China Sewing Machinery Association.
Radio
The sound of old and new generations
Radio used to be the major source for news and recreational programs for Chinese people in the 1960s through 1980s when televisions were a luxury only the affluent could afford.
"China National Radio (CNR) is now broadcasting to preschool children. Little friends, the Small Horn is now on!" — Intro of "Small Horn" (Xiaolaba in Chinese), one of the most famous children's radio programs in China aired through CNR since September 4, 1956.
According to statistics from the Beijing Daily, there were 118.3 radios for every 100 urban households in Beijing as of April 1981, an increase of 22 percent from 1979. The number stood at 98 among families in the capital's rural areas in 1983.
However, the booming popularity of televisions that came along with the rapid development of the TV broadcasting industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought existential challenges to radios. According to Beijing Daily, television ownership was 127.5 for every 100 urban households in Beijing in 1989, even more than that of recorders, which stood at 91.8 per 100 households.
While radios slowly went silent over the years, younger generations are still tuning in to radio shows thanks to online audio sharing platforms that allow users to follow their favorite channels while editing and publishing their own audio content.
Statistics from Chinese data analytics platform Aurora Mobile (Jiguang) show that the number of registered users of audio streaming apps including Ximalaya FM and Lychee FM has reached 173 million as of July 2018.
Radios, the "boxes" from where the voices of Pingshu storytellers, pop stars and sports commentators entertained generations of Chinese people, have managed to keep their echo by turning interactive and adopting user generated content (UGC).
"San Zhuan Yi Xiang" has mirrored the remarkable changes in China over the past seven decades. As China enters into a new era, what can we expect from the years ahead?
